London Assembly calls for action over Tube delays

Passengers have endured rising levels of delays according to the reportTube passengers are enduring rising levels of delays according to a new report by the London Assembly.

The Assembly’s Transport Committee says passengers are spending around 6.5m additional hours on the tube because of delays.

Their ‘State of the Underground’ report blames delays on the four worst performing lines – the Jubilee, Victoria, District and Metropolitan – on equipment failure.

Assembly Members say network delays have reduced by 27% since London Underground began its upgrade programme in 2003/04.

However their investigations reveal that August 2010 to January 2011 “saw the longest sustained period of poor performance on the Tube since upgrade work began.”

The committee is calling on Mayor Boris Johnson, who chairs Transport for London, to set out how TfL will address “this recent unacceptable level of performance.”

Committee Chair Caroline Pidgeon AM said: “Passengers spent an extra six-and-a-half million hours on the Tube in 2010/11 because of the increased number of delays, this is clearly unacceptable and a drag on London’s economy.”

London Underground insists the “long-term trend” is one of improvement and says delays are 35% lower than they were in 2003/04.

LU MD Mike Brown said: “The Tube is approaching 150 years old and we are currently undertaking the biggest upgrade in its history – replacing signalling, trains and track to boost capacity and provide passengers with more reliable and more comfortable journeys.

“This can’t be achieved overnight and some disruption is inevitable as the work takes place.”

Brown accepted there was “a dip in overall performance at the end of last year” but insisted new measures were already delivering improvements for passengers.

Pidgeon said TfL “must ensure that last year’s 20 per cent dip in performance is a blip – not a disturbing sign of things to come.”

Ken Livingstone, Labour’s 2012 candidate for Mayor of London, said the report “reveals what millions of Londoners experience on the underground everyday.”

Livingstone added: “While tube fares have rocketed, delays, disruption and closures have increased, causing huge inconvenience to the everyday lives of millions of people and lost income to the capital’s businesses.”